General: Annual herb from a taproot; stems 15-100 cm tall, simple or branched above, peeling below; plant densely white-hairy to long soft- or stiff-hairy, sometimes glandular.
Leaves: Alternate, except near base, lanceolate, becoming narrowly egg-shaped in the inflorescence,1-8.5 cm long, entire or remotely fine-toothed, upper ones hairy; unstalked or nearly so.
Flowers: Inflorescence of crowded, densely-leafy, terminal and lateral spikes; hypanthium 1.5-4 mm long; petals 3-10 mm long, white to rose-purple, notched at tip; sepals 2-9 mm long; stigmas irregularly 4-lobed.
Fruits: Capsules, more or less spindle-shaped, long-hairy, 0.4-1.1 cm long, very short-beaked, 4-chambered; valves split free of partition, the partition adhering to axis; seeds 3-6 per chamber, flattened, 1.2-2 mm long, netted, glabrous, brown, without tuft of hairs.
Epilobium densiflorum may be mistaken for Epilobium torreyi, another rare species in British Columbia. The two species may occur together. E. desiflorum is distinguished from E. torreyi by its shorter petals, crowded inflorescence, lanceolate to ovate leaves, often ashy strigose or glandular hairs, and fruits with the septa free from the valves.
BC Ministry of Environment:BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer,
the authoritative source for conservation information in British Columbia.
Synonyms and Alternate Names
Boisduvalia densiflora (Lindl.) S. Watson Boisduvalia densiflora var. pallescens Suksd. Boisduvalia densiflora var. salicina (Nutt. ex Torr. & A. Gray) Munz Boisduvalia salicina (Nutt. ex Torr. & A. Gray) Rydb. Oenothera densiflora Lindl.
